The Diamondbacks moved right-hander Trevor Cahill to the bullpen back in April and now they are prepared to eat the roughly $17 million remaining on his contract, as the team announced this evening that he has been designated for assignment to make room for J.J. Putz‘s return from the disabled list.

Cahill was acquired from the Athletics in December of 2011 for Jarrod Parker, Ryan Cook, and Collin Cowgill. The 26-year-old posted a 3.87 ERA in 57 starts and one relief appearance over his first two seasons in Arizona, but he was banished to the bullpen in April after just four ugly starts. He has posted a 3.04 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 23 2/3 innings as a reliever, but that apparently wasn’t good enough to justify a roster spot.

Cahill signed a five-year, $30.5 million extension with the A’s back in April of 2011, so he’s still owed the remainder of his $7.7 million salary for this season, $12 million for 2015, and buyouts for team options for 2016 and 2017. It will be interesting to see if a team tries to work out a trade, likely with Arizona picking up a large portion of the contract.

UPDATE: According to Steve Gilbert of MLB.com, Cahill indicated that he’s open to accepting a minor league rehab assignment with the Diamondbacks.

Cahill has options, and the local press expects him to accept a trip to the minors to work out his issues as a starter down there. Probably his best chance to have any value to any major league team in the future.

Just check MLB Trade Rumors. As a five+ year veteran, Cahill, who does indeed have options, can refuse the assignment. If I were him I’d bolt as I expect many MLB teams would love to have him on their squad with the D-backs paying the bulk of his salary.

nsauser - Jun 9, 2014 at 8:11 PM

Yea, someone might want him. This is assuming they haven’t seen him pitch since June of 2013.

Is this a case of him not hitting enough guys or something? No grit? That 3.04 ERA out ofthe pen looks pretty good. Upon further examination, he looks to have Jeremy Hellickson syndrome: very lucky for a few years, then very unlucky. His xFIP is right in line with career norms: 4.86, 3.99, 3.90, 3.76, 4.11, 3.92.

Just another stupid move by the DB’s to add on to all their other stupid moves. Just for reference, Ian Kennedy, traded away for a bag of beans last year, has a 3.39 ERA and has been worth 1.5 fWAR so far this season, for a division rival!

Yeah, I was just scratching my head about this one too. Those are pretty good numbers. When you look at how these clowns who are running the team have scotched their own snake, though, this isn’t really much of a deviation from their operant norm. But at least Cahill escapes from a…well…sinking ship. Or maybe lost planet wagon train?

Couldn’t be more wrong, randygnyc. He has truly fallen apart mechanically and need innings he will never earn in the bigs so he can try to rebuild a repeatable delivery. He says the DBacks have been ‘totally supportive’ and will accept a minor league assignment to work out his delivery. If there were personality conflicts the DBacks would not offer him the option to go to the minors, and if they did, he would simply decline to get out of there and become a free agent.

This is separate from the discussion of the awful trade to acquire this guy from the A’s. One of many moves that resulted in La Russa as “CBO”, whatever that means.